Campaigners in southwest Wales say that their campaign against the local installation of US ‘space war’ radar is continuing to grow following an August 7 demonstration along the Pembrokeshire coastline.
Local group PARC Against DARC has been campaigning against Ministry of Defence (MoD) plans to build 27 radar dishes at the local Cawdor Barracks. They are considered to be an integral part of the tripartite AUKUS project that threatens war against China. (PARC = Pembrokeshire Against Radar Campaign; DARC = Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability)
Reporting the launch of the project on December 2, 2023, the Pembrokeshire Herald wrote: “This pioneering initiative aims to significantly bolster the defence capabilities of AUKUS nations (Australia, the UK, and the US) by providing 24/7, all-weather capabilities to monitor objects as far as 36,000 kilometers away from Earth.”
Uncritically regurgitating British government propaganda, it added: “AUKUS, a landmark security and defence partnership, is set to benefit significantly from DARC, marking a significant step forward in delivering enhanced security capabilities among the partner nations and supporting a free and open Indo-Pacific region.”
The paper did however report a spokesperson for the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) as insisting that “The huge sums of money involved would be far better spent building fairer and more equal societies here rather than further militarising space.”
Reporting the August 7 protest, the Morning Star quoted PARC Against DARC campaigner Jim Scott as saying: “ “We believe [it] is intended to allow the US to make a first strike against… China without fear of retaliation, threatening to encumber the world with even more economic and military subservience to America at a time when it has such little regard for international law that it is openly arming a live-streamed genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.”
The following article was originally published in the Morning Star.
More information on the excellent work of PARC Against DARC, including a short introductory video, can be found on its website. It reports that, at its October 2024 conference, the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru unanimously voted to support the campaign. Current polls suggest that Plaid Cymru, which celebrated its 100th birthday on August 5, has become the most popular party in Wales, with support for Labour collapsing. Elections to the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) are due in 2026.
Public opposition to plans for a US space radar array in Pembrokeshire “just seems to grow and grow,” campaigners said today, following a demonstration on the famous Welsh coastline.
In action organised by the pressure group PARC (Pembrokeshire Against Radar Campaign), locals linked hands on Newgale beach to protest against Ministry of Defence (MoD) plans to build 27 radar dishes at Cawdor Barracks in Brawdy, Pembrokeshire, known as Darc.
PARC campaigner Jim Scott said: “Although Darc is a hangover from Biden’s AUKUS pact between the US, the UK and Australia, its purpose of allowing the US to target and shoot down other nations’ satellites is exactly in line with Donald Trump’s outrageously aggressive and wasteful plan to create a multi-trillion-dollar ‘Golden Dome’ of satellite weaponry.
“We believe [it] is intended to allow the US to make a first strike against other superpowers like China without fear of retaliation, threatening to encumber the world with even more economic and military subservience to America at a time when it has such little regard for international law that it is openly arming a live-streamed genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.”
The group has “no intention of easing up our pressure on UK and Welsh Labour decision-makers, and their refusal to live up to their jobs as public servants,” he added.
Brian Jones, of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Wales, said: “I do wonder how much longer we can walk that tightrope of countries having nuclear weapons poised to launch at a moment’s notice, and there won’t be time to check if something was just a mistake, a false reading, or a miscalculation.”
Thank you, Wales!